Electromagnetic Model of Reflective Intelligent Surfaces

Abstract: An accurate and simple analytical model for the computation of the reflection amplitude and phase of Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces is presented. The model is based on a transmission-line circuit representation of the RIS which takes into account the physics behind the structure including the effect of all relevant geometrical and electrical parameters. The proposed representation of the RIS allows to take into account the effect of incidence angle, mutual coupling among elements and the effect of the interaction of the periodic surface with the RIS ground plane. It is shown that the proposed approach allows to design a physically realisable RIS without recurring to onerous electromagnetic simulations. The proposed model aims at filling the gap between RIS assisted communications algorithms and physical implementation issues which determine realistic performance of these surfaces.